Our job is to paint the whole picture for Israeli decision-makers. In fact, they don’t even represent the beliefs of most of their own constituents. Federations, Reform and Conservative groups create the impression that they represent all of American Jewry. Lebovics: Am Echad is the voice of American Orthodox Jewry in Israel with regard to issues of religious pluralism, be it geirus, kashrus, Shabbos, the Rabbanut, the Kosel, or the Jewish nature of the State of Israel. Please tell us what role you see Am Echad playing in the current crisis regarding the Reform movement in Israel.ĭr. Hamodia spoke with four key members of Am Echad about its mission and about current developments.Įliezer Cohen, ESQ. The Israeli government has to know this, just as we will not accept a watered-down version of our religion.” People do not understand our connection and the amount of money and investment we have in this land. Many travel for a yarzheit, a bar mitzvah, to put on tefillin for the first time, to seek advice or a brachah from a Gadol. We fill the yeshivos and seminaries and we have thousands who bring families to vacation for Yom Tov, summers, Chanukah, mid-winter, and any other opportunity to be in Eretz Yisrael. “Orthodox Jewry is a force to be recognized. I said that emails or electronic media will not have the same impact as piles of letters being dropped on the desk of the prime minister.
“I told him of my idea and that, with the masses of Jews who will travel for the summer, and travel to Israel for yeshivah, and so on, we should start a postcard campaign.
“When I read about the need for the Chutz L’Aaretz Orthodox Jews’ invisible silhouette in the spheres of Israeli governmental decisions, I immediately texted Pesach Lerner, a friend for many years and a person who is at the forefront of trying to give a voice to the Orthodox camp,” Mr. “I was shocked when the Jerusalem Post printed my letter, which took them to task for their distorted views and misleading rhetoric. They have lost the battle in America and have opened a front in the only place where there is a growing Jewish population, in the hope of becoming relevant. I wrote a letter to the Jerusalem Post, published Sunday Augwhile I was in Yerushalayim, wherein I voiced my strong opinion that non-Orthodox American Jews do not share the sentiments and feelings of the bereft leadership that purports to speak for them and for American Jewry. “I thought of the idea when I was reading an article this past summer about the lack of a voice of Orthodox Jewry, juxtaposed against the arrogant and domineering actions of Reform and Conservative streams of American Jewry that demand recognition by the Israeli government for their views. This idea was the brainchild of Eliezer Cohen Esq., who is counsel for a real estate firm, serves as the gabbai of the vasikin minyan at Agudath Israel of Long Island in Far Rockaway-Lawrence, and is a baal korei in three to five shuls each Shabbos, as needed.Ī frequent visitor to Eretz Yisrael, he described to Hamodia what made him think of the idea of a postcard to Prime Minister Netanyahu: Or email: a time when the U.S.-based Reform movement continues to pressure the Israeli government into desecrating the sanctity of the Kosel and upending the status quo that has been place for seventy years when it comes to key matters such as giyour, kashrus, and marriage, the thousands of American Jews who will flock to Eretz Yisrael for Yom Tov are in a unique position to let their voices be heard on this vital issue by sending a postcard to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, 3 Kaplan St. Please customize the message above to reflect your plans, and send it to:
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